Covid Chronicles

Black and white prints

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In Collections: Creativity in the Time of COVID-19

Copyright Status: In Copyright

Date Created: 2019/2022

Artists: Pierce, Shattuck Ellen

Subjects: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020- , in art

Material Type: Prints (visual works)

Language: No linguistic content

Extent: 10 relief carvings

Genre Note: Linoleum prints

Exhibit Label: Linoleum is a sketchbook for me, a meditative place. Making a linocut print allows me to slowly carve lines that are very certain in the this uncertain time. Since Match 16th, 2020, I have created art related to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in the "Covid Chronicles," a series of sixteen relief carvings. The carvings, each measuring 18" by 24", chronicle my experience of the Covid-19 pandemic in Boston, Massachusetts, and its wider impact in the United States. As a Mother and art teacher in a public school, I have had a window through which to view the pandemic's effect on families' lives. With the pivot to online teaching, I zoomed into two hundred and thirty homes to teach art to kindergarteners through fifth graders. Making linocut prints gave me some sense of agency. By recording the pain, anxiety, and grief I witnessed, I aimed to escape the despair and make sense of the chaos. This series serves as a remembrance and validation of our shared experience --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m57p8xf5f

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1 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 01

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. The top portion has a person sitting in a windowed room, holding a chain for an anchor that reaches down to the bottom. Next to the windowed room is a cloud with the figure of a person's airways and lungs filled with white dots coming from the wave of water next to it. The wave overlaps a bar graph. Beside the wave, a plane labeled with the word "patriots" in capital letters flies upwards, and a COVID mask falls from the open plane door. Beneath the top portion is a sea, where a boat moves towards the windowed room with a banner on top of it that reads "help us" in capital letters. The large figure of a person with visible muscle tissue and internal organs swims towards a pulled drain plug. Underneath the scene to the left is a sign that has different recreational activities crossed out with a prohibition symbol. The chain from the anchor held by the person in the top left ties down a large heart filled with different symbols of life. A school bus drives down a road next to the sea, stopped by a barrier. A yellow duck and ducklings in COVID masks stand on paved ground next to the road.

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5ft8hk8z

2 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 02

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. In the center, a person sits at a table with a respirator mask. On the table is a symbol of America overlapped with a flag, the stripes from the flag holding down a heart and bust statues of people. Next to the table, a carton of milk is tipped over and spills outwards, creating a flood at the bottom of the piece. Above the person, eyes cry tears, next to an angel with wings that are lungs, and a sun in the right corner. Underneath the sun, on the right, is an empty stadium with a banner that reads "Boston hope" in capital letters. Beneath the stadium is a pig pen, and one of the pigs steps in the spilled milk. To the left side, a truck drives through with a cherry picker in its trunk, holding up a person that puts posters of people on a building.

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5n58gn0w

3 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 03

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. In the top right corner is a depiction of the White House, four people wearing COVID masks stand in front of it. Following a factory line from the front of the white house, down throughout the piece are small objects that resemble vaccine vials that gather in the bottom right corner and also come from other conveyor belts from the left. Beneath the White House are a large set of steps, lined with officers, at the bottom of the steps a procession of US Capitol Police officers stand in a salute. Next to the White House at the top of the piece is a person lying in a bed, a COVID cell covering a sun ray above them. To the left of the bed is a crumbling colosseum. Below the colosseum is a tangle of intersecting lines, and below it, stacks of mushroom-like shapes.

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m55m6580m

4 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 04

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. Winding from the bottom left to the right is a pathway of people, all masked, that leads to the Capitol building. Lining the pathway to the right side is a bunch of upright nails that form a swirl in the right corner. Above the Capitol building is a clock that breaks apart into a vortex at the center of the piece, warping the scene. On the left side is a barbed wire fence and a person nailing a wooden coffin shut. Above the scene in the top left corner, a gloved hand examines vaccine vials.

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5x924k5v

5 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 05

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. Three school children wearing COVID masks walk towards a bus stop sign on a sidewalk. Next to the sidewalk is a garden of sunflowers and trees. Above the garden, dotted forms that could be mountains or clouds fill the space. Next to the garden on the right is a pile that covers about five handguns. Flying above the children are two angels, one on the right holding a laptop.

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5d21vk72

6 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 06

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. Water floods an outdoor scene. To the left side, a person stands chest deep in the water wearing hospital scrubs, in their left hand is a pair of goggles and in their right a COVID mask, held above the water in front of them. Below them, a skull floats beneath the water. They are separated by a street that continues down the middle of the scene, trees and houses in the background. On the right side of the street, a group of protesters stand on boxes and platforms above the water, with signs in capital letters that read: "united non compliance", "parents call the shots", "unmask our children", "no mandate my body my choice", and "this dad fights like hell". A horse stands next to two of the protesters.

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5833r04m

7 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 07

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. In the center, a person with a COVID mask sits at a school desk, a laptop opened in front of them. Behind them, a bunch of papers fly through the air. Surrounding the person are hands stretched into different poses: to the right, hands with fingers interlocked; in the center, hands with their pointer finger and thumb pressed together; and to the left, hands with fingers interlocked, only the thumbs pressing together. A box fan sits at the top center, and to the left of it are rows of outdoor isolated dining spaces. To the top right, a plow works in a field.

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5183739q

8 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 08

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5z895g42

9 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 09

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. On a striped background, different motifs fill the scene. From the left, a pair of hands reach up and hold the figure of a person, a building and black stripes overlapping them. Within the bottom portion, a large wave laps upwards. A person on a small board stands and paddles through the calm water. In the top center, a badge that has the facebook logo in the middle reads: "the university of facebook" in capital letters, "School of Science & Political Propaganda", and "A university without brains" in lowercase letters. A butterfly is positioned beneath the badge. To the right side, a train drives with a giraffe next to it, holding a sign that reads "ShotsRus", an Earth floats above them. Beneath the train is a bridge that has a person sitting under a beach umbrella, watching boats in the water.

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m51837387

10 of 10: Covid Chronicles. Part 10

An abstract linoleum print, proofed with black ink and carved to reveal details in white. In the center is a street, a child wearing a short dress and holding an umbrella walks down holding an open container, white dots pouring out of it. In the bottom portion is a truck labeled "patriots" in capital letters and people standing around. Next to it, a Black Lives Matter protest is beside COVID testing tents. In the top portion of the piece, hilled forms with broken eggs and eye symbols fill the space. A truck drives away from a hill of used gloves and COVID masks. Faintly above the scene are the words "Wash, rinse, repeat".

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Extent: 1 relief carving

Permalink: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5zs2pf0d